Published in Business on 9 August 2011 by Karen Leland

VA’s, or virtual assistants are quite new to NZ but are gaining awareness – check out the article from the Xero blog:

http://blog.xero.com/2011/08/would-a-virtual-assistant-work-for-your-small-business/comment-page-1/#comment-16868

There are other great articles on the Xero blog pages too, even if you don’t use Xero, they are well worth the read for all SME business owners.

Check out the blog for Xero, from Rod Drury, a great read.  Cloud accounting products vs PC based products.  I think Xero must have looked at what MYOB or other products were doing and decided to do exactly the opposite.  I was appalled MYOB’s support line has increased in cost from $35 to $50, you wait longer and finish the call more frustrated than when you rang.  Xero continue to be free for support.

http://blog.xero.com/2011/08/changing-of-the-guard-2/comment-page-1/#comment-16649

I am pleased to announce that we are now simPRO Streamline providers and trainers.  We can integrate simPRO Streamline with your accounts system, we can also provide the accounts system and training.  Check out our setup rates.

I am keen to discuss your needs and see if simPRO suits your business.  Call us at the office if  you have clients who need support for simPRO too – 09 269 5466.

Checkout Web Widgets free Website Builder - this cloud based content management system and shopping cart integrates with Xero, sending invoices into your Xero drafts.  It also integrates with paypal and several other payment gateways.

Build and maintain your website for free.  It’s easy to create your own website using their templates and wizards, or alternatively contact them for a professional design service.

www.webwidgets.co.nz

Katalyst manage debtors for many of our clients, we know a few rules that help maintain relationships and ensure payment.  Check out our Debtors page for some tips to better manage your debtors and maintain them as clients.

Click here to view.

We are now officially WorkflowMax partners – we have already been training some clients on it, integrating it with such programs as Xero and iPayroll.

We have been using WorkflowMax to run our office for over twelve months now.  For staff payments, time gets clocked on jobs in WorkflowMax, I export this time to iPayroll, then iPayroll pays the staff and IRD, then exports the payroll file straight into Xero.  This process takes about 5 minutes.  No more PAYE payments or returns, no more direct credits or cheques for staff.

For jobs and costs, we send the invoice from WorkflowMax into Xero, then out to customers.  This means we have full use of Xeros debtors system, also, you can have highly customisable invoices in Xero where you can promote other areas of your business or messages to clients etc.

KOM loves WorkflowMax!!!

Call us for training or for a demonstration for any of the above.  Or, if you have these programs and they are not hooked up to each.

You have got to love Googles new image search – it must be great for design people wanting to make sure there is nothing similar.  Or, if you are looking for picture – for whatever reason – and need something simliar or in the same series, you can upload the image and google will search for websites and other images like it.  Or, it will find the origin of the image in most cases I tried.

Interesting to note that the Katalyst logo doesn’t come up, so not sure how you would fix that?  It is cool to see what comes up when you upload various images.  It seems to mostly match on colour.

Go to Google, Images and there is a little camera button, click it and then upload an image.

Thanks to DJCA who presented at the Xero office this afternoon.  Ric, Andrew, Rebecca and Eva did a great job showing how Xero works and how great your relationship with your accountant can be – with ongoing advice available because of the nature of Xero.

Email Ric for details of the next event they are running – ric@djca.co.nz

Katalyst Office Management are now Unleashed Partners.  We will do the accreditation for training next month, so if you need to manage inventory in your business we will be able to set up Unleashed for you, or if you have clients on Unleashed who need support, we will be able to provide support for you.

If you didn’t know, Unleashed can now comfortably manage around 50,000 stock lines.  I have a stock background and I can tell you it easily handles import costing.  Unleashed starts from $40.25 per month.  Call us at the office now if you are interested in Unleashed for your business or clients.

www.unleashedsoftware.com

I came across this on Troy Goodall’s site and I had to share it.